We had a great year; we returned to the same lunchtime slot (13.40) at the same venue (white horse) we used last year which meant there were no surprises.

There was no venue captain which led to us all needing to pull together to set up and de-rig which didn't seem to cause any major problems.

The first week was superb for numbers, there seemed to be a lot more people around than last year, but it definitely tailed off in the last week when we thought we wouldn't need to flyer so much and ended up struggling to fill the relatively small white horse on a few occasions.

The venue suited us well and we felt fully supported by the staff who often went out of their way to help before and after the shows. The only slight concern we did hear from audience members was that they had been 'forced' to buy a drink. This is a sensitive subject as of course we encourage our audiences to buy drinks but it is ultimately up to them in exactly the same way as whether they donate to the bucket at the end of the show. To expect/force is surely to undermine the spirit of marketing the show as free in the first place. There needs to be a happy medium.

With 4 members of the group flyering isn't too much of a problem and we generally got on the Mile an hour or so before which worked well for us. It was good to be able to offer the Free Fringe programme as this added legitimacy to what we were doing. We included a map on our flyer which I'd highly recommend.

We had a large piece of paper on the wall with all the acts telephone numbers and somewhere to leave messages which seems pretty obvious but was very helpful in those moments when someone hasn't turned up or you need a favour etc.